Cleveland, Ohio - With a winter this brutal, we should really be ready to
chase it away by March 1. We'll have a
little help from the Kurent - a mythical Slovenian figure who is believed to
usher in spring.

The Kurent – make that many Kurents - will be visiting Cleveland
Saturday, March 1, as part of the second annual Cleveland Kurentovanje
festival. Held in the ethnically rich St. Clair-Superior Avenue area on St.
Clair Ave. between Addison Ave. and
East 62nd Street, Kurentovanje will feature a winter's end
parade, Slovenian food and drink, cultural performances, a parade, and, yes, an
appearance by many many fuzzy Kurents.

Last
year's inaugural fest attracted between 2,000 and 3,000 attendees, says Michael
Fleming, Executive
Director of the St. Clair Superior Development Corporation

That included many area Slovenes, but
also other Clevelanders who wanted to explore the area that is in the midst of
an urban renewal, from the revival of Sterle's Country House to the trendy
Cleveland Flea shopping events.

"We were looking at ways of marketing
the area more in 2012," says Fleming, "And we heard about this funny event that
is really one of the most popular festivals in Slovenia, it's like
Carnival. We thought it would be a great
way to bring in spring in the neighborhood, and bring people to the
neighborhood."

This
year's Kurentovanje festival will feature a parade of Kurents, bands and other
groups at noon, from St. Vitus Church on Lausche Ave.
to the Slovenian National Home on St. Clair; a party from 1 to 6 p.m. in
the Slovenian National Home with ethnic
food including krofe and sausage sandwiches, wine, beer, music and dance; and a
6 p.m. to midnight After Party with schnitzel and polka at Sterle's Country
House, where the Bier Garden will be open all day. There will also be more crafting stations for
kids this year.

"The reception of the festival was very good
last year, we expect it to grow," says Fleming. "There's a lot of nostalgia for
the neighborhood from people who used to live there. And then there are younger
people who have never been there or heard of it before and who were very
impressed by what they saw, the great houses and neighborhood that has
withstood the test of time and foreclosure."

And then there's the parade.

"It's very, very different than anything else
you've seen at an ethnic event in Cleveland," says Fleming. "You've just got to
see it."